Introduction
News flash: CBD is the non-psychoactive compound found in cannabis. It has a wide range of health benefits, including pain management. CBD interacts with our body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), which is responsible for regulating many of our body’s processes including appetite, mood, and pain sensation.
CBD is not psychoactive.
CBD is not psychoactive because it doesn’t bind to the same receptors in the brain as THC.
CBD is a compound found in the cannabis plant. It doesn’t get you high, and it’s legal in all 50 states.
But, that doesn’t mean it can’t be effective for a number of conditions and symptoms. In fact, when used in conjunction with THC (the main psychoactive compound in cannabis), CBD can actually balance out its effects to help you feel less anxious or paranoid.
CBD enhances alertness and focus.
You may be wondering why CBD is so effective at treating pain. The answer lies in its ability to help the body reduce inflammation, which can cause serious discomfort. CBD binds to receptors in your brain and throughout your body, blocking any pain signals before they even reach your brain.
CBD is also known to help with sleep disorders such as insomnia or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). It helps people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer, without waking up during the night. Some studies have even shown that it reduces insomnia symptoms.
Another thing that makes CBD so helpful for pain management is its ability to lower anxiety levels—and stress plays a big part in causing muscle tension and headaches! By calming down anxious thoughts, you’ll feel less tense overall, which can help relieve some of that tension that causes aches and pains in the first place!
CBD helps influence emotional regulation and mood.
For some, the idea of using CBD for pain management might seem counterintuitive. If you’re even slightly familiar with marijuana, you know that it has psychoactive properties—it gets you high. This is because THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the ingredient that causes this sensation, not CBD (cannabidiol). Because CBD is non-intoxicating and doesn’t contain THC, it can be used safely by those who are seeking pain relief without experiencing a euphoric high. Are you looking for something more natural than opioids or other traditional drug treatments without any adverse side effects or addictive qualities? A CBD isolate may be your answer! Similarly, it may be a great way to reduce the quantity of opioids that you are taking, if you are already on a prescribed regimen. However, numerous studies are showing that when combined with just a tiny bit of THC (like, 0.3%) the CBD effects are compounded along with all the other phytochemicals in the plant. In fact, CBD acted as a countereffect of THC. So, if you are looking at full spectrum CBD, you’ll find a legal amount of THC (0.3%) that won’t get you high but can kill your aches and pains. This means–if your workspace is ok with you taking CBD–you may have a powerful pain reliever at your fingertips, one on which you cannot overdose and to which you cannot get addicted (unlike opioids).
There is no way to overdose on CBD.
There is no way to overdose on CBD. If you’re consuming it through your lungs (smoking or vaping), make sure that you don’t overdo it. You can experience intense effects from inhaling too much at once, like dizziness and other negative side effects that occur with vaping and smoking.
However, CBD won’t cause these effects if you’re taking it orally or applied externally. If ingested properly and responsibly, there will be no risk of overdosing on the substance—in fact, ingesting an excess amount may just make you feel extra relaxed for a day or two before returning back to normal levels of activity!
CBD isn’t just for anxiety; it has many benefits for relieving physical pain, too!
Specifically, CBD can help with:
- Chronic pain (including arthritis and other autoimmune disorders)
- Insomnia and lack of sleep
- Muscle spasms or cramps
- And, my personal favorite, it has helped speed my recovery from intense workouts.
From personal experience, CBD reduces soreness from exercise routines.
I have used CBD to reduce soreness from exercise routines. This can be huge for those who enjoy sports and weightlifting. There’s nothing worse than being sore after a tough workout, but, with the help of CBD, you can feel better in no time at all. For those that are truly focused on their workout routines, a personal trainer and I have both tried a private label CBD balm application after a workout and found that, while our soreness was about the same immediately after the workouts, we both realized that the amount of time it took to not feel sore afterwards decreased by 1 – 1 1/2 days. The personal trainer used it after her regularly scheduled workout and decreased her soreness’ longevity from two days down to one day. I purposefully didn’t work out for a few weeks and decided to jump right back into a full body workout (intentionally making myself sore). This is similar to what I do if I’ve been away from the gym due to vacation and don’t want to drag the soreness out longer than I have to. Still, I expected to be sore for about 3-4 days; instead, I was only mildly sore for 1 1/2 days and then experienced no soreness afterwards.
CBD is great for reducing the pain and inflammation that comes with muscle soreness. It also helps manage joint pains caused by arthritis or injury, as well as nerve-related pain such as backaches. This is good news for all of those computer warriors that face upper and lower back pains due to an inevitable posture slouch while working with a computer.
The Takeaway
CBD is an exciting discovery that has the potential to change our lives. It isn’t just limited to providing relief from anxiety and stress–it can also help manage physical pain. As with anything else in life, we need more research before we know the different ways in which CBD affects each person’s body, but we think it’s worth trying out for yourself!